Jeff Winger
"Look at me. It's clear to all of you that I am awesome. But I can never admit that because that would make me an ass."--'Jeff' ("Pilot") Bio Jeffrey Tobias "Jeff" Winger (played by Joel McHale) was a lawyer from Denver, Colorado who is currently attending Greendale Community College to earn a legitimate degree in order to practice law. Before his academic records were called into question, Jeff was a very successful defense attorney specializing in DUI/DWAI/DUID cases, traffic offenses, and juvenile crimes working for over six years. He worked for a law firm headed by Ted and was friends with another lawyer there named Alan Conner. Two years later he found out that Alan was the one responsible for his disbarrment. He has a father named William Winger who he has not seen since he was a child since he divorced his mother, Doreen Winger, 'when he was very young. Following the disappearance of his father, Jeff had no role model or father-figure to admire and the only thing he really admired after that was "the lawyer leaving the courthouse in a great-looking suit and a sky-blue Mercedes" ("Accounting For Lawyers"). He apparently still has not told his mother he is no longer a lawyer ("Basic Geneology"). Personality Jeff possesses a sarcastic wit and egotistical personality along with extreme case of vanity. This is due mostly to his mother having over praising him when he was a child ("Beginner Pottery"). He is an admitted Agnostic ("Comparative Religion"), although this can be seen as an example of his tendency to not want to put any effort into anything. He hates talking about his feelings and for the most part avoids having to deal with emotional conflicts of any kind. As Professor Kane pointed out to him ("Biology 101") he tries to keep people at a distance and cannot truly open himself up to others. This is directly tied into his father's abandonment of him at an early age ("Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking") . He confessed to Ted ("Accounting for Lawyers") that he admired the divorce lawyer hired by his parents because he was able to rise above all the personal feelings involved and look at the bottom line while looking cool at the same time. It had a profound affect on him and inspired him to become a lawyer himself and adopt the same attitude. His time with the study group has eventually started to change his personality for the better. He has become more generous and compassionate, although there are occasional relapses into selfishness. He is currently in therapy and now in the process of looking for his father ("Introduction to Finality". Class history Character history After his law firm discovered that Jeff's Bachelor's degree was from Colombia (the country, not the university) Jeff was disbarred. He decided to go back to school in order to obtain an actual law degree. On Jeff's first day he notices a pretty blonde girl in his class named Britta. Jeff pretends to be a board certified tutor of Spanish and invites Britta to join a fake study group. Confident that his friend and former client Professor Ian Duncan would be able to get him the test answers to all his subjects - including Spanish - he offers to help tutor Britta in that subject. He was surprised when, instead of the private study session he was hoping for, Britta asked Abed to join them, who in turn invited Annie, Shirley, Pierce and Troy. After causing discord among the group and then calming everyone down with the first of many patented Winger speeches, he is exposed as a fraud by Britta and the group asks him to leave. Jeff then finds out that Duncan refused to help him cheat, so he will actually need to study to pass his courses. Upon learning this, the study group takes pity on Jeff and allows him to return. Although the group tended to look to Jeff as the de facto leader, recently they have begun to rely on him less in this role. Relationships ' Britta: Jeff aggressively pursued Britta romantically in Season 1, but she repeatedly refused him, although he did see some hope with her after Shirley reveals that Britta had a sex dream about him. Eventually he moved on and started dating Professor Slater. During her tap dance recital she saw that Jeff and Slater were actually serious, which made her realize her own potential feelings for him. She ends up leaving Jeff an embarrassing drunk dial laced with BCI. Upon Abed's insistance and with his help, Jeff later drunk dials her as well in order to restore the balance between them. Not long afterwards, however, Slater unceremoniously dumps Jeff. During the chaos of a Greendale painball competition, Jeff and Britta find themselves swept up in the moment and end up having sex. Afterwards they both agree it was a mistake and decide to keep it a secret from the study group. At the end of the school year Abed throws a keg party at his dorm and Jeff makes an awkward pass at a clueless Britta. Slater interrupts the moment, having made an attempt earlier that day to get back with Jeff. That night at the Transfer Dance formal, Slater and Britta compete for his affections. Desperate to win at the competition more than to be with Jeff, it culminates with both of them declaring their love for him. Instead of choosing between them, Jeff leaves the dance and ends up running into a third option. At the start of the start of the second semester her false declaration of love at the Tranny Dance wins her the admiration of the female student body while also earning Jeff their scorn. Desperate to prove Britta's actions weren't genuine, Jeff initiates a competition of escalating romantic gestures in order to force her confession. He wins the competition, but at the cost of causing turmoil within the study group. Things eventually seem to return to normal, although there is a moment on Troy's birthday after a night of drinking where they end up making out. Sometime later she and Jeff decide to become friends with benefits, but after it's revealed to the study group they decide not to continue. Despite the two's past sexual liasons, the two seem to be each other's best friends in the group. They both share a similiar sharp-edged sense of humor, a tendency to drink, and fragile egos. While they seem to trade barbs the most out of the group, it is shown that they are rather comfortable around each other and Jeff becomes angry when anyone else outside of the group or a select few calls Britta the worst. ' Michelle Slater': First introduced in Season 1 episode "Introduction To Statistics" as Jeff's teacher, she originally turns down Jeff's advances, citing her personal rule never to date a student. Over the winter break Jeff convinces her to reconsider and they began to date secretly. Jeff is reluctant at first to define what they have as an actual relationship, but Slater eventually convinces him to commit. The relationship is tested when Jeff accidentally drunk dials her thinking she's Britta. A voice message of the drunk dial Jeff left Britta clears up the misunderstanding and Slater forgives Jeff. Unexpectedly, however, she dumps him and immediately starts seeing someone else. She later apologizes to Jeff for the break up, admitting that it might have been a mistake and tries to make another play for him. This leads to a showdown between her and Britta for Jeff's affection at the end of the year Transfer dance. Both declared their love for him, but Jeff found himself unable to answer either of them. Jeff takes advantage of the chaos that ensues after a fight breaks out between Chang and Duncan to slowly sneak out of the dance. Slater watches him leave and the two share a look before he exits. Slater is noted to be the only woman in the series that Jeff has liked enough to date. ' Annie': In the pilot episode when Annie first meets Jeff, she is immediately suspicious of his credentials as a "board certified tutor" in Spanish, but is eventually charmed by him along with the rest of the study group. The two discover an underlying attraction in the Season 1 episode, "Debate 109" , when Jeff is forced to work with Annie to win a debate against City College. She kisses Jeff to help win the debate, causing them to have awkward sexual tension later on. Although he tries to keep a safe distance from Annie because of their age difference, he often finds himself jealous when she tries to date anyone else. When he found out that she was interested in Vaughn, he and Britta conspire to break them up. When Vaughn gets the opportunity to join a prestigious Hackey Sack college, she decides to transfer with him and leave Greendale. She changes her mind, however, and runs into Jeff right after he had just left the Tranny Dance. They have an intimate conversation about their romantic troubles and Jeff lets Annie know he's happy she's decided to stay. After a hug she hesitatingly gives Jeff a quick kiss which he reciprocates with a longer, more passionate one. In Sesaon 2 Jeff tries to make it clear to Annie that the kiss was a mistake, but despite his denial that it meant anything more, there are moments throughout the season which hint otherwise. In the Season 3 epsiode "Geography Of Global Conflic," Jeff finally does admit that he has feelings for her, but also says that they both need to mature a bit before anything can actually happen between them. In the Season 3 episode "Urban Matrimony and the Sandwich Arts" a virtual slot machine appears when Annie asks Jeff what is in his heart and multiple images of Annie appear several times in Jeff's heart. It seems that Annie has become Jeff's moral compass as he is often found being scolded by her for a selfish deed or looking to her for advice about being more compassionite. ' Abed': Abed and Jeff are good friends and it seems that Jeff is willing to make more of an effort to please Abed than he is for most of the others in the study group. This is evident by his (reluctantly) agreeing to help out Abed when he thought that everything was claymation, and by how badly he wanted Abed to experience his surprise Pulp Fiction party. Abed and Jeff get along very well, as they both dislike getting involved with other people emotionally, so they are sort of on the outside together. However, Abed and Jeff have downs to their relationships, too. For examples of Abed and Jeff not getting along, watch "Anthropology 101 " and "Contemporary American Poultry ." It is shown that Jeff is rather protective of Abed, going as far to fight a bully who picked on him and attendeding a therapy session to convince the therapist that Abed was saner than the majority of the group. Jeff does note, however, that he doesn't always have the patience to deal with Abed's obsession with movies and television so he does not hang out with him as much as he used outside of the group as he did in Season 1. ' ' Troy: Troy initially looks up to Jeff, especially admiring his way with women. Occasionally he'll exhibit signs of jealousy over Jeff's relationship with Britta, who he has a crush on. Troy like the rest of the study group considers him the official leader but will at times argue with desicions he has made as leader. As the series goes on, Troy becomes his own person and even starts to threaten Jeff as the alpha-male of the group which leads to Jeff trying to sometimes assert his dominance through mocking. Despite this, the two share a good friendship and have been seen to play sports together. Shirley : Jeff and Shirley share a special relationship despite having not very much in common. In Season 1 episode "Social Psychology ", the two bond over gossiping over Britta and Vaughn's relationship although this ends when Jeff tries to respect Britta's privacy. Then in "Comparative Religion", Jeff goes through many hoops to prevent Shirley from getting mad at him for fighting Mike although she eventually gives him the go to fight him after Mike low blows him. The two don't share much more one on one interaction until the Season 3 episode "Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism", where they discover they met once before their time at Greendale when Shirley was an aggressive 12-year-old who publically humiliated a meek 10-year-old Jeff by making him wet his pants in a game of foosball. Jeff becomes briefly enraged at Shirley for being the girl who embarrassed him so badly that he had to change schools and his appearance as well as his personality. However, the two reveal to each other their insecurities from their childhood and make up. Since then, the two have become rather close and see movies with each other. Jeff has even stated that Shirley is the one person of the group who truly understands him and he is willing to put in time to make a toast for her wedding. Shirley has been shown to be one of the best influences on Jeff during his time in Greendale maybe due to their two-year age difference and personality. Other notable relationships Sabrina: In "Politics of Human Sexuality" Sabrina, Dean Pelton's new assistant, is Jeff's date after Pierce tricks him into going with him on a double date to the STD fair. Easily charmed and very immature, Jeff quickly loses interest in her. Amber: Jeff had multiple flings with other girls, including Amber, Pierce's step-daughter. Jeff tries to be a good friend to Pierce and not have sex with his step-daughter, but he eventually gives in. However, upon finding out that Amber is grifting Pierce, Jeff becomes disgusted with her and tells her (non-threateningly) to please just stay away from Greendale. Quendra: When Annie gets closer to Rich, whom Jeff hates (Rich doesn't hate Jeff), and suggests that Rich join the study group, Jeff finds Quendra (pronounced like 'Kendra') and suggests to Troy that she would make a nice addition (or two) to the study group. It shown that he merely did this to make Annie jealous as he was but this fails when Pierce makes an unheard pass at Quendra involving $50 bucks which makes her storm off. Dean Pelton: The Dean has a bit of a crush on Jeff, and always tries to make a move on him, often putting his hand on his shoulder or pecs before leaving. Jeff is always annoyed, the dean never learns, hilarity ensues. However, Jeff has shown to be somewhat fond about the Dean when he instantly forgives him when he asks for the study group's forgiveness for his craziness during "Documentary Filmmaking: Redux " and hatching a plan to save the Dean from Chang in "The First Chang Dynasty ". Trivia * Jeff is Agnostic. * Four cheese is Jeff's favorite type of pizza. * Jeff's student ID card says his last name is Crocker. * Jeff enjoys nipple play during sex. * In the Community College Chronicles, Jeff is played by Andrew Peters. *In episode 2x15, Chang finds out where Jeff lives by stealing his driver's license. When the license is displayed on camera, it lists Jeff's date of birth as November 20, 1971, which is Joel McHales actual birthday. It should be noted, however, that Dan Harmon calls this an error, and Jeff is younger than Joel McHale. The ID hasn't been explained. *Jeff's favorite stores include The Gap and Banana Republic (Ep 3:7) *When he was 19, Jeff auditioned for MTV's The Real World with George Michael's song, Faith. He changed the lyrics to say "you've got to have Jeff." *It is shown that Jeff has a Playstation 3 in his apartment. *As implied by Pierce's racist father in episode 3x6, Jeff is of Welsh heritage. *He has never told anyone how he styles his hair. Videos thumb|400px|left|Jeff's epic speech montage Category:Community Characters Category:Season 1 Characters Category:Greendale Students Category:Fictional Characters Category:Season 2 Characters Category:Season 3 Characters Category:Main Characters